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May will come up against Gloucester for the first time since his departure in just his third game for Leicester when the sides meet at Welford Road on Saturday.

But it turns out he could have moved on much sooner as O’Connor revealed that he tried to sign May from Gloucester in his previous spell at the club when he worked under director of rugby Richard Cockerill.

“When I was here last time we had a couple of very serious conversations with Jonny around making the move then,” O’Connor told The Telegraph.

“It was when Alesana (Tuilagi) was retiring and the feeling was we needed a finisher of that class, with Jonny being the obvious choice. For the right reasons he decided to stay at Gloucester.

“I remember saying to him five years ago, and he proved me wrong anyway, that if he came to Leicester he could be starting left wing for England. He went on to do that at Gloucester so he justified his decision then.”

Jonny May in action for Gloucester against Harlequins at Kingsholm in 2012

May came through Gloucester’s academy, scoring 62 tries in 138 appearances for the club before triggering a relatively unknown clause to leave with a year left on his contract and joining Leicester in a move that saw lock Ed Slater move the other way.

England star May has started his Leicester career in fine form, scoring three tries in two games despite them starting with back-to-back defeats against Bath and Northampton.

“I’m just really happy that he’s made the call,” said O’Connor. “He has big growth in his game but he also has things as well that you cannot coach.

“He thought that he needed to be in a different place to be better and to challenge himself, and he wanted to play top-end European rugby because he thought that was a better mix in relation to Test rugby.

“There were a few things that worked in our favour there. I think it’s a great result for us and a great result for Gloucester.”